Lost in limbo
Chapter 4
The feliner came within scanning distance of the planet Amox5, "All scanners at max" Tygra announced, they were scanning for not only the ship, but life forms as well in case there wasn't much left of the ship. After nearly twenty minutes was no sign of the ship or any life on the planet.
"It's like looking for a certain grain of sand in a desert" Lion-O commented as the tension the air grew.
"Adjusting scans " Panthro replied then started fine tuning the scanners.
After a few minutes of silence Cheetara spoke up" Wait, I have something, sector 3 grid 25" the rest of the ThunderCats adjusted their scans to the area.
Tygra looked at the panther "what do you think?"
Panthro magnified the area in question, "right size and density. Has to be them"
Tygra took over the scan as Panthro piloted the ship closer to the planet, "Looks like the ship is in one piece, however," The tiger paused as he brought up picture from the surrounding area, "its half buried by sand"
"Well least the ships landing fared better than we did" Panthro said referring to their crash landing on third earth all those years ago. "Not sure how operational it will be being half way under sand all these years, wouldn't take much for sand to get in and corrode the electrical and computer systems"
"Panthro I did a scan of the surrounding area, looks like a cave system, with a small water supply, if they are alive they may be there" Cheetara said and fed the coordinates to the pilot computer.
"I want to check out the ship first" Panthro said as they entered the planet's atmosphere.
The feliner started to shake "rough ride" Tygra said trying to stabilize the ship and the panther concentrated on keeping them in one piece.
"We are flying half blind," Panthro said as the screens went dead.
"Some sort of magnetic interference, trying to compensate." Lion-O said from his console as he tried to bring the screens back to life.
As the feliner got closer to the ground they found themselves in the middle of a massive sand storm, "just can't catch a break," Panthro grumbled as he struggled with the controls, now they were completely blind with both screens and now zero visibility.
The feliner engines started to spit and sputter, "Oh come on," Panthro growled, "don't you dare do this to me now"
Tygra seen through the sand storm that they were coming up on the ground fast and hit the reverse thrusters. Keeping the feliner's nose up the ship landed with a slight thud.
"Everyone alright?" Panthro asked shutting down the engines.
"Yes," both Lion-O and Cheetara answered in unison.
"Not one of your better landings my friend" Tygra said with a slight smirk.
The panther grinned, "Were are in one piece so I say one of my best"
"Ok ThunderCats let's go see if we can find survivors" Lion-O said heading to the back of the feliner.
Despite the temperature outside being near the mid 130 the cats dressed in cloaks and protective face masks to shield them from the harsh blowing sand. Hand held scanners proved useless as the magnetic interference they experienced in the planet upper atmosphere also extended to the ground.
"This way," Cheetara yelled over the wind and lead the group to the downed Thunderian convoy ship.
Forcing open the door the four went inside, everything was pitch dark, taking out flashlights the first place they headed was the bridge.
Lion-O and Cheetara looked around as Panthro and Tygra went to the main controls, "Bah, no power," Panthro grumbled,
"I don't think anyone has been in here in a long time "Tygra said running his finger over the console leaving a trail in the thick build up of dust.
"Let's check out the rest of the ship, Cheetara and I will check the crew quarters, you and Tygra check out the cargo bay" Lion-O said. "we'll meet back here in twenty minutes"
Lion-O and Cheetara went room to room checking the crew quarters, but found each empty save for a few items. "Well we know they didn't leave in a hurry, everything has been packed up and taken" Cheetara said looking around, everything was covered in dust.
"And we know they haven't been here for a while, Snarf would have a fit if he seen all this dust" Lion-O replied as they finished searching the first and second crew decks.
On the way they checked the medical bay and it too was empty, everything had been packed up and moved , as the lion and cheetah left themed bay they met up with the panther and tiger, " Nothing in the cargo hold" Panthro said.
"Same as the crew quarters and med bay," Lion-O said.
"So now we find that cave" Tygra said.
The four went to go outside but froze when they seen a group of ten people standing before them cloaked and weapons pointing at them. "Not one more step" A male voice bellowed, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"We are here to help" Lion-O answered
"Who said we needed help!" another male replied.
"Just calm down," Tygra spoke up, "We had received word of this ship being in trouble and we came to see if there were any survivors"
"Well you are a bit late aren't you?"
"Well this place is far out of the way, look we wish to speak to Captain Brya" Tygra continued.
Two of the cloaked men turned to each other and one of them nodded. "First tell us who you are"
"I am Lion-O, lord of the ThunderCats" the lion said as he and the others removed their hoods and protective face masks, "this is, Tygra, Cheetara and Panthro"
The group of men dropped to one knee "My Lord" one spoke, "we had no idea"
"It's alright, we would have reacted the same way if we were in your position" Lion-O said calmly, "now are you the crew of this ship?"
"Part of the crew yes" The man said and removed his cloak and nodded to the others to follow suit. "I am captain Brya" he sid introducing himself. "I haven't seen you since you were a boy my lord and I would know you anywhere, you look so much like your father"
Lion-O bowed slightly, "thank you captain. My father was a great man"
Captain Brya note he spoke of his former king is the past tense. So he knew the old king didn't survive. "My lord we are but a small crew only thirty of us made it. Twenty men and ten women, we lost twenty of our people over the years due to these harsh conditions"
"well, worry no more, we have come to take you home if you wish" the lion said
"Home?"
"Yes Thundera reformed and we have rebuilt it, many have returned home"
"What about the others?" Panthro asked intruding his leader/
"They are back at the cave. We thought it safer after our power supply gave out. We will take you to meet the others"
The group departed the ship and stepped outside, the sand storm had finally calmed down enough so they could see which direction they were going. As they got close o the entrance of the cave, more people came out to greet them. They all went inside. As they went deeper into the cave system the ThunderCats noticed how warm and bright it was. What surprised them more was one part of the cave grew a lush field of crops, it was a type of bio-dome the crew had created so they could at least grow food.
"This is amazing" Tygra commented as they looked around.
"this was five years in the making" Brya answered, "we had to covert our laser and cut out about ten tons of rock to make enough room for a small crop farm, we planted seed we had on board"
"But our scans showed hardly any water" Tygra said.
"We tapped into a underground spring and made a irrigation system" Brya answered.
The ThunderCats attention was drawn to the sounds of giggling, they turned and seen a small group of young children of between the ages of six and three years of age. Lion-O turned back to the captain.
"Well, sometimes nature has its own way of popping up" Brya said with a slight chuckle. "but we are careful to control our population, it could lead to umm, problems down the road"
Lion-O gave Tygra a look.
"He means inbreeding," the tiger whispered," the males outnumber the females 2-1"
"ah got ya " Lion-O said with a nod.
"I am so sorry," a young woman said running into the room "these little rats got away from me again"
The group turned towards the young woman "It's ok Lethea, as you can see we have guests" Brya said.
Panthro looked at the young woman his jaw nearly dropped; she looked exactly like the woman he had known years ago, but it wasn't possible this one was way too young to be her. She couldn't have been more the twelve or thirteen. But she looked exactly like her. Same eyes same pitch black hair same nose.
"Please come and meet the others" Brya said and lead the ThunderCats to another part of the cave.